El Tronco

How ’bout Ramon Troncoso? What an incredible outing he had last night and what an great call by Joe Torre to keep him in there to protect the lead. I guess there’s a reason he’s going to be in the Hall of Fame as soon as he decides to hang up the uniform. Troncoso’s numbers are sick but it’s his road ERA that blows me away – 0.53. I think we need a nickname for him. Tronco just doesn’t cut it. And while I love that his mom’s favorite player was former Rafael Landestoy, hence Ramon’s middle name, that might be a bit of a mouthful, too. Any ideas?

And how much more can one say about Juan Pierre? I don’t know that I’ve been this happy for a player in a long, long time. He easily could’ve pouted his way through the last year and a half and then stunk up the joint when he finally got an opportunity to play, but he didn’t and he’s been the catalyst for baseball’s best team over the past several weeks.

It’s a good time to be a Dodger fan, and we should all enjoy the good times as much as we hate the rough patches. At least that’s what I try to remind myself.

Meanwhile, it may be rainy and overcast here in LA, but out on Waveland Ave and in Wrigleyville, they surely don’t care about the 74-degree overcast weather. They’re probably starting their party early for some day baseball and here’s the lineup that’ll take to the field in a couple hours:

I’d certainly rather have Hudson bat second – he did well there when it was Furcal, Hudson, and Manny in that order. Now I want to see how Martin can respond in that spot and following all of my disparaging remarks. Get some fire in your belly, you, you former All-Star catcher.

JOSH thanks for the update. And yeah EL TRONCO has been wonderful…we’ve complained about our pitchers, but boy surprinsingly they have done wonderful. PIERRE is another surprise…now I’m waiting for MARTIN’S surprise…LOL Wow rainy in L.A. rain hasn’t hit Riverside yet, but I do see the overcast in L.A. direction.

JOSH ********QUESTION********
Will Manny #99 be doing rehab with the 66rs (Inland Empire)?
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Ramon THE TANK….LOL I just don’t want to see him running around naked LOL! (Old School – movie Frank the Tank Will Farrel)

Howzitgoin’ Everybody
Sorry I can’t think of a better nickname than, “El Tronco”
Just hoping for a nice afternoon in Chicago and more important, another win.
I gotta say I really enjoyed watching last night’s game on MLBN, I guess I’ll have to put up with MLB.TV today with all the problems, but it will be good to get back to Conners and the good humored Lyons.
GO DODGERS************************************

I was getting my mlb.tv set up to watch the game ( I told my class they can watch a half hour of it until lunch time), and I turned it on only to see Andre’s restaurant review he did a while back………………………… LET’S GO ANDRE!!!!!!! LET’S GO DODGERS!!!!!!!!!

Wouldn’t the return of Kuroda be the opportunity to can Mota? Either Milton or Stultz would go to the pen and either one would be more reliable than Mota. Of course, neither of them makes $3 mil.

I also applauded Torre’s decision to leave Troncoso in last night, but it’s a shame that he had no choice. Several rested arms down there and not a one to be trusted.

Herb Alpert’s TJ Brass……brings back a lot of memories. My dad used to listen to his stuff all the time. I remember drooling over one of his album covers in particular…..LOL!!! Anyone remember that one?

For what it’s worth, Torre might use Loney and Blake interchangeably in the cleanup slot, depending on whether we’re facing a righty or lefty. Of course, we’re facing Lilly on one of his really good days. Maybe we’ll have a chance to get into their bullpen, so hold on Billz for another inning, or better yet two.

Nelly, my sentiments as well. Not much else to say except to come back tomorrow and try again. The Cubs got some good pitching today and turned the double plays they needed just like the Dodgers did yesterday.

I was on my way to school this morning, and I was listening to my favorite gnat station (lol), and one of the guys said……..”Those Dodgers just tick me off because they are playing so well.” It’s great to hear even the gnat radio hosts admit we have an awesome team.

I don’t understand Torre, He pulls wolf after a lead off Home run yesterday, yet he keeps Bils in after the same.
When he was equally high in pitch count. I dont get it, especially when the bullpen had a rest. Oh well
this loss was tough, what happen to our offense.

Tough game today. I missed most of it seeing as my opener at work overslept and I was called into work on my day off.
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So my day was pretty crummy to begin with. Then I get home to see the lead run score.
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I’m not to upset with the loss however. We aren’t going to win them all.

I am thankful that Major League Baseball has provided us with a free blogging community. Yet, I do have some disagreements with MLB about how the issue of PED’s is being handled. Not wanting to bite the hand that feeds, and wanting my Drawing blog to stay a positive site, I figured I’d use the other one to tackle the thoughts on the ugly issues that face the sport today, with the freedom of speech without doing it on Bud’s dime.

I’ll still do the drawing blog, I just feel these issues are too important to ignore, and I want to get into the minds of baseball fans and see how they view this growing problem. Thanks for your time.

I think it’s ridiculous for people to be saying Ethier should be benched because he’s going through a slump. The Dodgers wouldn’t even be where they are this season without his production the first month of the season and they may not have made the playoffs without his production last season. He was a solid player before Manny ever came to the team, so the reason he’s struggling right now has nothing to do with Manny. What really bothers me is the double standard.. He’s always been held on a really short leash as far as performance is concerned. Casey Blake and Russell Martin were terrible the first month of the season and Martin had a prolonged slump last season. I didn’t hear anyone calling for them to be benched. During the time that Ethier was raking the first month of the season, Kemp and Loney both went through pretty bad dry spells and I didn’t hear anyone say they should be benched either. Furcal hasn’t produced all season long and again, I don’t see people calling for him to be benched. I am not saying they should be benched, but neither should Ethier. He should be allowed to work his way out of it just like they have been. I have no doubt that he will pull out of his slump and be a huge contributor to the Dodgers again this season.

BLUECREWGIRL – THAT POST GETS A STANDING OVATION AND ALL CAPS………………..FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! …………….and you know I agree with you 100%. He still has the 2nd most HRs on the team, he has scored the 3rd most runs (29) on the team, and he has 30 RBIs. Andre’s batting .257 with an OBP of .313. Just to put him in perspective with Grady Sizemore(who is one of my favorite non-Dodgers) who is in a slump of his own, and has been for some time. Grady has 8 HRs, 28 Runs, 30 RBIs and he is batting .223 with an OBP of .313, and he was an All-Star last year. I have no doubts that Grady will be batting his usual by the end of the season, and I have no doubts Andre will be doing the same.

I posted pretty much the same thing on the comments on the article on today’s game because some guy said he should be benched or in a platoon. He was also going on about how Joe took his advice to put Blake in cleanup, blah, blah, blah. It was pretty funny though because someone else quoted what he said and then commented as follows:

Comforting to know he trolls this site for your commentary. Yeah let’s make one of our best hitters a platoon guy.

bluecrewgirl – I really don’t care how well JP is hitting the ball right now, come July 3rd, he doesn’t belong in center field anymore. His hitting is not worth him being there. I am sorry, but today, he literally had to run the ball in to the infield because it was faster than if he had thrown it in. I would also like to know is he going to get a day off to rest. I mean he hasn’t had a day off, and Andre and Matt have both had days off (and Andre was hitting everyday back then) to rest them up, so why shouldn’t he? Why can’t Hoffman play for him some day. Matt, O-Dog or even Raffy can take his lead-off spot for the day, and see what happens. Talk about a double standard.

Trublu, the funny/annoying thing is that when he starts raking again, which I know he will, these same people calling for him to platoon will be singing his praises. Of course the team and their overall success is the most important thing, but I’m loyal to the players I like. Conversely, though I give Pierre total credit for his contribution, I’m not going change my basic opinion that he’s not my style of player.

I know what you mean, Bluecrewgirl. I totally agree with you about Juan. How many games did he play last year when he coudn’t get on base to save his life?! But Joe stuck with him until he got injured and that is when Matt and Andre took off and became the players we all knew they were!

Yes I’ve been messing around with my nickname. I had never noticed the link under the profile where you can put a nickname, but when I posted on the comments on that article, it made me select a nickname before I could post. I tried to put in bluecrewgirl, but it said it was already taken. When I noticed it changed my name on here by inputting the nickname, I tried again to put in bluecrewgirl, but I capitalized the b and it accepted it. Not sure why it shows a little b now, but whatever. Anyway, I never could figure out why none of your email addresses showed and mine did, not that I use that email address for anything, I just used it to sign up for here. I guess I’m a little slow, lol.

Good Night and God Bless everyone 🙂
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I am thinking Andre will be full of positive energy tomorrow.
Stults will be outstanding and the Dodgers will be as intense as ever….:)
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GO GET THOSE CUBBIES BOY’S!!!!!!!
GO DODGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BRING THE RING TO L.A. IN 2009!!!!!!!
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Have a wonderful night and fantastic Saturday everyone 🙂

Looks like JoJo wants to rush Kuroda back for no apparant reason. He stunk it up in his last rehab start against single A competition. What’s the hurry? Shouldn’t he take a couple weeks and stretch it out so that maybe he can go 7 innings? Another 5 inning starter isn’t what we need right now.

And then who is he bumping on Monday – Kershaw. Why not wait another few days and bump Stults (who still has a sore thumb) or Milton?

Tough game yesterday. Just got outpitched. The boys do have to start swinging the bats better as a team though. I’ll still be happy with a split in Chitown.

Who will be going if Kuroda is coming? I wish he’d wait a little bit on his return too, Enchanted. Three runs scored in two games, not good. However, we were able to win on of them. Today we are on Fox so, come on Dodgers, show the Nation what a fine team we are!
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Knouffbrock ~ Love the Catfish line!

Good Morning ITD readers and writers!!!! With Stults pitching with a hurt thumb, let’s hope the bullpen is rested and ready to help win this one. I am with the rest of you………….why bring Kuroda before he’s fully ready. Do you think there is some other reason. We are winning so why would you push him back so fast? It doesn’t make any sense, but then sometimes, what the management does, doesn’t make sense, does it?

Good morning, everyone!
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Hoping the bats come alive today – GO DODGERS!!
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Way off the subject – I have a job interview at 11 this morning, and I’d appreciate any who are of a mind to, please pray for favor for me here. I really believe this would be a good job for me.
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Talk to you all later! And thanks!

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